An Iranian Scientist's Misadventure in the US

September 15, 2020 8:10 AM

"The Man Who Refused to Spy" is an article by Laura Secor in the New Yorker. The F.B.I. tried to recruit Iranian materials scientist named Sirous Asgari as an informant. When he balked, the payback was brutal.

Some quotes:
- Asgari had just been acquitted in a fair trial before a federal judge, but would end the day in prison.
- Asgari concluded that he was a victim of American law enforced by Soviet-style procedures.
- He was sad to learn that a guard he’d known at Winn had died of covid-19.

posted by of strange foe (10 comments total)

This is probably also what happened to Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a friendly TV presence after 9/11 but eventually left the country and wound up getting assassinated in Yemen by the Obama administration (which famously also killed his 16yo son; his 8yo daughter was later killed by the Trump administration).

Some of his interactions with the FBI are reported in Dirty Wars.
posted by grobstein at 8:49 AM on September 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

Holy fuck. It’s obviously Dr. Asgard’s relentless optimism which kept him alive.
posted by Slothrup at 9:15 AM on September 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

Also, Dr. Heuer is an idiot. The easiest way to run afoul of immigration is to do "work" on a non-work-approved visa. To suggest such a thing to anyone at all -- let alone an Iranian -- is mindboggling.
posted by Slothrup at 10:09 AM on September 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

We need to rip out our entire immigration system and replace it with one not invented by racists and sadists.
posted by sotonohito at 11:52 AM on September 15, 2020 [10 favorites]

An extraordinary story about a man who seems remarkably self-possessed and fair-minded in the face of treatment that sounds vindictive and petty.
posted by domdib at 5:14 AM on September 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is horrifying. On the other hand, I'm not surprised that an Iranian has a philosophical response to state oppression. I hope he's doing well.
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:29 AM on September 16, 2020

This is evil. The regular court system still has some integrity in some places, but ICE is an absolute monster. The FBI agents and prosecutor who callously threw him into this system when he wouldn't agree to collaborate with them deserve contempt. All of them. They are individually and collectively responsible for their actions and the damage they callously inflict in the way they perform their jobs.

Just to highlight their names again from the article, they are:
Special Agent Matthew Olson, of the F.B.I.
Special Agent Timothy Boggs, F.B.I
Daniel Riedl, a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney’s office
Scott Wichrowski, ICE officer

This quote from the article makes it quite clear how the FBI operates and the role ICE plays in doing their dirty work for them:

“Unwitting silent parole” allows the F.B.I. to issue foreign nationals a document that looks to them like a visa but in fact grants them permission to enter the country only for the Bureau’s purposes. Once those purposes are served, the F.B.I. is required to hand the foreign national over to ice for removal.

The prosecution, rather than let him self-deport after being acquitted due to their flimsy case, chose instead to turn him over to ICE. Looking at you, Daniel Riedl:

The prosecution, evidently sensing that the case was not going its way, had quietly informed ice that it no longer wished to defer Asgari’s deportation: the agency could come collect its prisoner. No sooner had Judge Gwin departed the courtroom than a marshal seated in the gallery approached the defense table to haul Asgari into ice custody.

posted by dougfelt at 9:58 PM on September 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Also, Dr. Heuer is an idiot. The easiest way to run afoul of immigration is to do "work" on a non-work-approved visa. To suggest such a thing to anyone at all -- let alone an Iranian -- is mindboggling.

This statement tweaked my brain:

The university would need to initiate paperwork to convert his visa to an H1B, which allowed employment in the U.S.

Like I get that Dr. Asgari would have been over on a B-2 and that it's perfectly legitimate to look for work on a B-2 but if you're looking to attract any sort of undesirable attention, going from B-2 to H-1B would be it. I did a B-2 to LPR that was scary enough on its own but B-2 to H-1B? That's marked on the map of immigration with "There be dragons".
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 4:56 AM on September 17, 2020

The prosecution, rather than let him self-deport after being acquitted due to their flimsy case, chose instead to turn him over to ICE. Looking at you, Daniel Riedl:

He speculated to Olson that the F.B.I. had been behind the scuttling of his visa application. Four months’ work, and some twenty thousand dollars that he would never be paid: the U.S. government was responsible.

Come on. The guy admitted to the FBI that he lost 20 grand of backpay while working on a B-2 visa. Like he openly admitted to committing visa fraud. Any other person that would be instant deportation from ICE as well.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:00 AM on September 17, 2020

OK. What the fuck. They had his passport and didn't put him straight on a plane. That's utterly fucked up. Like I get that massive visa fraud doesn't get self-deportation but they didn't have to keep him for a document that he already had. Fuck these people.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:16 AM on September 17, 2020